Facebook’s New “Deep Learning” A.I. Team Established

Daniel Faggella is the founder and CEO at Emerj. Called upon by the United Nations, World Bank, INTERPOL, and many global enterprises, Daniel is a sought-after expert on the competitive strategy implications of AI for business and government leaders.

It’s been announced that Facebook has a new, 8-man “AI Team” working away at specific issues and opportunities for what’s being called “deep learning.” In the MIT Technology Review, Facebook’s CTO Mike Schroepfer is quoted:

“The data set is increasing in size, people are getting more friends, and with the advent of mobile, people are online more frequently,” Schroepfer told MIT Technology Review. “It’s not that I look at my news feed once at the end of the day; I constantly pull out my phone while I’m waiting for my friend or I’m at the coffee shop. We have five minutes to really delight you.”

Of course, Facebook is not the first social media or technology giant to begin putting a serious emphasis on artificial intelligence. Google’s recent “deep learning” projects include the identification of cats from still images on Youtube, as well as hiring Dr. Ray Kurzweil as Director of Engineering.

Facebook – it seems – can’t hope to stay ahead of the game of capturing attention without doing some serious investing in artificial intelligence. On one level, the platform itself has to be more and more interesting and relevant to it’s users. If Facebook can make better assumptions about what we’ll want to see when we skim our various screens and pages, they can keep up there longer – and hopefully – they can be not only more engaging, but more useful a tool and medium of connection in our lives.

On the other hand, Facebook needs our attention to stay alive. Eyeballs on pages in how ads get seen, and how ads get clicked, and how Facebook gets paid. Hence, there is an art and science to what ads will be best placed in front of what users at what time, and AI can help with that.

Invariably, an additional AI emphasis will be – in part – secretive. Invariably, some people will become increasingly nervous about this – on a conscious or subconscious level. A recent article on Technorati (which is no longer available) involves a picture of a Terminator robot, and makes quick reference to “Skynet” (the self-aware computer system that decides to destroy humans in the “Terminator” movie series).

I’d rather not be pessimistic, but I think that aiming to understand how Facebook will collect and use this data is a more than reasonable desire, especially with how much of our lives and now spent and shared there. Will we have any say or control over how these algorithms alter our Facebook experience? If Facebook knows that we’ve been through a break-up, will it keep our minds occupied with the ongoings of our previously significant other? How would it be able to tell if our attachment in this relationship was significant or shallow? How might that alter the updates it presents to us, the ads it serves us, and the experience we have on the platform?

If Facebook could, it would want to know all of this, and find intelligent ways to leverage the data. If you’re overwhelmed by the prospect of what else Facebook could harvest, etc…, then I’d recommend not “Facebooking” anymore. I’m not there yet, personally. Maybe I don’t have enough to hide, but I’m more interested in understanding what Facebook is up to and how these AI enhancements will treat my information than I am about running away for the sake of doing so.

It seems to me that the future will unquestionably involve greater “deep learning” elements in finance, in government, and in our online media. The fruitful conversation seems to be the policies and applications of these technologies, and exactly HOW they are permitted (in business and otherwise) to permeate our lives. No Terminator robots yet, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled.

San Jose-based Nvidia announced a new chip, designed especially for deep learning, during a company event this past Tuesday. The TeslaP100 could allow researchers to feed more data through artificial neural networks, potentially leading to more breakthroughs in the field. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang stated,

Venture Capitalist Vinod Khosla, the founder of Khosla Ventures, is more concerned about the threat of human manipulation of genes over potential haywire AI. Khosla made the comment in a Quora response, after he was asked about previous comments made be Tesla's Elon Musk. Khosla stated that both are tools that need to be managed, with the potential to bring both benefits and destruction. He noted the development of CRISPR, a technique now being used to edit animal and human genes. Chinese researchers are already using the method to alter genes in human babies. His concern relates to unregulated use, and the creation of more intelligent "designer humans" that are output a faster rate than those yielded by nature.

Quiet Logistics' spin-off company Locus Robotics is building warehouse robots to help replace the former Kiva Robots once used by its parent company. Before being bought by Amazon in 2012, Kiva Robots supplied all of Quiet Logistics' robots, which were distributed to its clients to support warehouse operations. Instead of going to a new supplier, Locus Robotics was formed to design and build its own lines of warehouse fulfillment robots, which work in collaboration with humans to fulfill orders. When asked what makes the company's robots stand out amongst competitors, Locus Robotics' Chairman and Founder Bruce Welty said:

San Jose-based Nvidia announced a new chip, designed especially for deep learning, during a company event this past Tuesday. The TeslaP100 could allow researchers to feed more data through artificial neural networks, potentially leading to more breakthroughs in the field. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang stated,

Stay Ahead of the Machine Learning Curve

At Emerj, we have the largest audience of AI-focused business readers online - join other industry leaders and receive our latest AI research, trends analysis, and interviews sent to your inbox weekly.